This invention relates to devices for wringing mops. It is particularly concerned, but not necessarily exclusively so, with devices for wringing mops of the kind which comprise a pad, which is usually provided with tufts of water-absorbent material, mounted on a generally planar frame.
Devices are known for wringing such mops that comprise a pair of mutually pivoted plates between which the mop head is placed and excess moisture wrung from it as the plates are pivoted together to apply pressure to the mop head. The known devices have the disadvantage that they remove water unevenly from different regions of the mop head because the gap between the plates is greater the further the distance from the hinge pivot, so that there may be little or no pressure applied to that part of the mop head remote from the pivot.
Devices are also known in which two plates are held horizontally one above the other, allowing a mop head to be placed between them, and a gear rack mechanism is employed to lower the upper plate and wring moisture from the mop head squeezed between the plates. The gear rack mechanism is expensive to construct, however, and the device is difficult to use because the conventional long-handled mop is cumbersome to manipulate and the mop head has to be inserted sideways; moreover the space receiving it is largely obscured from the view of the user by the raised upper plate. A further characteristic of this device is that the mechanism maintains the upper and lower plates parallel, which can lead to an uneven wringing effect analogously to the other known form of device referred to above.
In both the known forms of device mentioned, some restriction of the maximum opening between the plates is necessary in order to be able to close the plates together by one hand while the mop is being held by the other hand.